MetroFi

MetroFi was a provider of municipal wireless network service in several cities in the western United States. In most of its service areas it provided an unencrypted, advertising-supported "free" service as well as a WPA-encrypted, ad-free "premium" service for approximately $20/month. During 2006, its bandwidth was restricted to 1 Mbit/s down and 256 kbit/s up. Coverage and performance of the premium and free service was otherwise identical. MetroFi also provided fixed-wireless service.

Rollout

MetroFi started offering conventional WiFi wireless Internet access to municipalities in 2005.^[1][2] It began offering free, advertising-supported, unencrypted, low-bandwidth wireless Internet access in late 2005^[3]. A test^[4] of the ability to get a connection in outdoor areas within 500 feet of an access point in the Portland proof-of-concept network in the early spring of 2007 showed about a 58% probability using a standard 30 mW, low-gain client device. The report concluded that the probability the network was providing a connection to those devices in 90% of outdoor areas, as called for, was 2 in a billion. The Portland network was less than 30% complete, and as of October 2007 further deployment has been halted. The contract^[5] with Portland requires MetroFi to complete the network by August 2009. A group monitoring the Portland network estimated that the network is providing a 90% probability of getting a connection outdoors in about 4% of the city's footprint^[6]. The Portland Network is now Defunct and all assets have been seized by the city as abandoned.

One May 16, 2008 Metrofi announced that it was seeking buyers for its networks, but having failed to find a buyer, it scheduled and performed a shutdown of its network on June 20, 2008.^[7]

Coverage

Cities covered, according to the MetroFi Web site, included:

• California
  • Concord
  • Cupertino
  • Foster City
  • Riverside
  • San Jose
  • Santa Clara
  • Sunnyvale
• Illinois
  • Aurora
• Oregon
  • Portland (now defunct) ^[8]

Notes

1. ^ Metrofi press release, Sept. 2005
2. ^ Official website via archive.org
3. ^ MetroFi press release, Dec. 2005
4. ^ Unwire PDX Watch Testing Report
5. ^ Nonexclusive License Agreement with the City of Portland
6. ^ Willamette Week Rogue of the Week
7. ^ Rogoway, Mike. "MetroFi sets date to turn off Bay Area networks". oregonlive.com. http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2008/05/metrofi_sets_date_to_turn_off.html. Retrieved 2009-04-01. 
8. ^ "Portland Seizes MetroFi Muni Wifi Gear". Virgo Publishing, LLC. 2008-10-09. http://www.xchangemag.com/hotnews/portland-seizes-metrofi-muni-wi-fi-gear.html. Retrieved 2009-04-01.